How Soon Before Blu Ray / HD DVD Is "Affordable?"

[astrostu]

Just curious for folks' take on this. If BluRay wins, when do you think the drives and media will be "affordable," such as maybe a $100-200 add-on for the drive, and media down in the $1 or less range? If HD DVD wins, same question.

I have so much archived on optical media that I'm looking to cut it down by a factor of ~10x ...

 

[Nermal]

I have an X360 HD DVD drive (US$179/NZ$249) hooked up to my Mac right now. I need to use Windows to play the movies, so I'm hoping that Leopard includes support, but I think it's affordable as-is.

 

[fishkorp]

blank DL DVDs are hard to find for $1 each and you want blank Blu-Ray or HD-DVD for $1? you'll be waiting a long time probably. there also isn't even any external (or even user-installable internal) HD-DVD burners as far as i know. i think the only way of getting one is by buying the new Toshiba notebook that has one pre-installed. Blu-Ray burners are down to about $500 right now. so there's still some time to go before the drives are in your range. as far as media prices go, i'm guessing years before they hit $1 each blank.

 

[astrostu]

... i'm guessing years ...

Sigh ...

 

[cr2sh]

Right now blu-ray discs are about $15 and burners $450.. I think you can safely assume those prices will be cut in half by this time next year. If you're even more optimistic, i think you're looking at burners for $200 and discs at $5 a year from today.

Let's hope they're even cheaper.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD have sold pretty badly so far, Blu-ray has just sold less badly. Whichever hits $99 first should gain a pretty solid lead over the other. If I were the manufacturers I would be rushing to get the price down ASAP.

 

[GFLPraxis]

such as maybe a $100-200 add-on for the drive

HD-DVD is already available as a $179 add-on, and it comes with 5 free movies. It's called the XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on; and before someone mentions the fact that you need an XBox 360, Mac OS X recognizes the drive, so as soon as Leopard comes out with the ability to play HD-DVDs, that drive should work with any Mac.

External USB 2.0 HD-DVD drive for $179.